No you can't. It's not semantics. It's reality. You can't buy data on people or groups of people from google any more than you can buy data on people from NBC, ABC, CBS. From TV stations you can buy ads during specific programs. That's it. From Google you can buy ads. You can not buy data. Data is something you can do something with on your own, analyse it, etc. Google does not give you data.
Google will let you target on the following. Especially by combining criteria you can narrow things down to very small specific groups of people. If a person in that campaign then clicms and enters a name and email I have a better profile on them as a person than many of their neighbors.
Demographics: Target users based on age, gender, parental status, household income, and more
Interests: Target people based on their interests, even if they're visiting pages about other topics
In-market audiences: Target users who are actively looking for products or services similar to yours
Custom intent audiences: Create and target audiences based on their search behavior and interests
Remarketing lists: Reconnect with users who have previously interacted with your website or app
Customer match: Use your first-party data to reach and re-engage with your customers
Similar segments: Expand the reach of your best-performing audiences by targeting new users with similar characteristics
Affinity audiences: Reach people based on a holistic picture of their lifestyles, passions, and habits
Not sure what point you're trying to make, though: you buy ad placement from Google, not data about people. Sure, you can make the inference that people who visit your site via a Google ad fall into one of the categories you've targeted (though you won't know which one, unless you've only chosen one), but that's it.
You can target all and only all criteria at once so only people who fall into all criteria will see the ad. A variation may target a different group and have its own tracking.
If they see the ad they fall into the category combination I specify. If they click the ad then I known all of that stuff about a visitor because I know which visitors clicked and which found their way outside of ads. If they signup or enter email or anything like that then I know exactly who they are for most people. Even if I have only an email but no name I can create a shell profile and use a data broker to find the name behind the email a lot of the time. Then I have everything tied to a person.
Multiply this times thousands upon thousands of ad impressions across multiple campaigns and you can bud a pretty good database with highly specific data. Sure 100% accuracy isn't guaranteed but neither is it guaranteed through more direct data brokers.
I don’t think you understand how Google ads work. Here’s a super common example:
- I sell red bowling shoes
- I pay Google for access to anyone searching for ‘red bowling shoes’
- Once they land on my site I know who came via the Google ad (via the URL params)
- A certain percentage converts, and I get their personal info and payment info
I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with that chain of events! It’s a win-win for both buyer and seller.
However, to argue that no data was sold is disingenuous at best. Google is the monopoly broker of the intent data on every buyer in the world.
Why should I let Google profit off of my thoughts/interests? Why shouldn’t I be making the money that the bowling shoe manufacturer paid to access my thoughts/interests?
I don't really see how you're coming to the conclusion that chain of events constitutes the sale of user data. Google has sold ad placement, not user data.
When a TV station sells ad time to a company, and then someone sees the ad, comes into the store, and says "hey, I saw your TV ad while watching Law & Order", we don't say that the TV station has sold data to the merchant.
